The Green Team: 18 of the Biggest Cannabis Advocates in Sports

Not long ago, whenever professional athletes dabbled with marijuana, it was bad news: multigame suspensions, ruined careers, endless stoner jokes. Not anymore. Just take a look at this week’s Sports Illustrated, which dedicated its cover story to former NFL running back Ricky Williams’ relationship with cannabis. Williams’ 11 NFL seasons were marked by repeated suspensions for positive marijuana tests, hand-wringing, and forced contrition; now the big story is that Williams has become an outspoken marijuana advocate and co-founder of the world’s first cannabis-friendly gym, Power Plant Fitness and Wellness.

Williams is far from the only big-name sports superstar, former or current, coming out of the cannabis closet. That’s despite the fact that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which prohibits not just performance-enhancing drugs, but any substance it considers a health risk or violation of the spirit of sport, still bans marijuana. All major U.S. pro sports leagues still punish players for marijuana use (with the notable exception of the NHL, which doesn’t include cannabis on its list of banned substances.) And never mind that the jury is still out on whether marijuana helps or hurts athletic performance and recovery. (What is clear is that lots of players use pot to ease injuries, and in some ways that could be safer than the potentially addictive painkillers they’ve long been prescribed.)